Anyone starting IVF soon? Join me (2)

[purplemeggie]

I see we've filled up the thread and thought I'd better start another one. How's everyone doing?

Sending you big hugs, Shellster - I'm with Blue on this - that one fat one might just be the one. I think you should push for the trigger when you want it, too - you've had too many cycles where your clinic hasn't listened to you and you've been left feeling that if they had done you might have had a better outcome. After all, their treatment is based on data from IVF cycles generally - you actually have quite a lot of data about your own body and how it responds xxx

We're heading home this morning - DH and DS are having a last swim in the hotel pool while I pack and then the lovely clinic coordinator is turning up to drive us to the airport.

Thank you both. My nurse is quite short and never lets me finish a sentence and I think just offered an earlier scan to stop me talking. I really wish she would pass on my concerns to my Dr when she speaks to my Dr each day before calling the patients back to advise them. I think tomorrow morning I might send a fax direct to my Dr's office to express my desire. At least if I know my Dr is making the decision when to trigger based on this info rather than a nurse who acts like she just can't wait to get off the phone with the patients, it will put my mind at ease.

What a lovely relaxing way to do IVF purple. I will feel more relaxed when one of my embryos is alive and perfect on day 3 for transfer and it will be lovely to do the one week of the two week wait with you.

blue, so lovely of you to be offering me well wishes amidst recovering from your recent IVF outcome. I can't remember your exact four IVF details - you really only had 2 eggs collected your first two IVFs? And you always made it to transfer. That really does give me some reassurance.

You must be really disappointed Shellster what a blow. I think you know your body best at this stage and you must do what feels right for you. Let us know how it goes today.

I stopped my Norethisterone on Sunday but will start my stims and Buserelin tomorrow (if this blimmin period shows up).

Welcome Frank! There are a lot of knowledgable IVF ladies on here and a lot of support.

Shellster your nurse makes me mad!! I think you should do whatever it takes to make sure the doctor gets your request. Call/email/fax - whichever is best - then follow up to make sure he got the information. Don't worry about the nurse getting annoyed or being seen as a pain in the arse - it's YOUR money and YOUR treatment.

Grrr. If you like, give me their number and I'll give them a call from Azerbaijan on your behalf

Purple, have a safe trip back and remember to drink loads of water and keep moving on the plane! Can you remind me of the name of your clinic in CZ? I know someone else who did a DE cycle at Reprofit but I can't remember if that's your clinic or not.

Hopefully your period will turn up today Sunset. Blimming annoying, I know.

I think that faxing the clinic is a really good idea, Shellster - there is nothing worse than not being listened to. If they listen and come back with a reasoned argument, that is one thing, but dismissing your concerns without passing them on to the doctor is rubbish. I'm with Blue - multiple international bollockings for the horrible nurse

Blue - how long are you in Azerbaijan? (Do you know the Eddie Izzard sketch about Azerbaijan? I can't say the word without doing a silly voice...) My clinic is Arleta. I'd definitely recommend them...I've felt very well looked after.

BTW, I've just finished a session with Dr Google (panicking about dosages for progesterone - CZ clinic has given me 2 x 100mg Utrogestan, twice a day as opposed to 400mg cyclogest twice a day - haven't found a satisfactory answer - just need to trust the clinic!), when I came across an article about vaginal progesterone reducing the number of NK cells. Thought you might be interested. here it is

I've come down with a horrible cough . It started last night, and I had a dreadful night's sleep....hoping that being back in my own lovely bed will help.

Come on, Sunrise's AF....

purple, did you ovulate naturally this cycle to produce your own progesterone? Sorry to hear you've got a terrible cough. These things always have to happen at the worst time. I hope you recover quickly - or that it's your immune system being suppressed so that your uterus accepts your embryos!

It seems a common thing Sunrise - the one time we want our period to show up and it doesn't. blue recommended I get some exercise. Don't know if it helped or co-incidence but it did help feel like I was doing something practical instead of just anxiously checking.

Okay, going to prepare my letter to fax to my Dr this morning! It's exactly as purple says. If my Dr has this information and has a reasoned argument for waiting an extra day to trigger, that's one thing. But for my nurse in her usual fashion to ignore my request is another.

Hi Shellster. No, I was down-regged, so I wouldn't have ovulated. I like the immune system theory though, I'll take that!

Good, glad you're taking this into your own hands. Hope you get the answer you need xxx

Hope the doctor is more help than your nurse shellster I have found in the past that sometimes you do get nurses who think they know best! I remember when I was younger seeing a 'nurse consultant' at hosp clinic for a different health issue and she called herself a 'consultant' and would talk over/interrupt me and the actual doctor at every opportunity!

Fingers crossed everything is going well purple

blue hope you are feeling ok? Will you be doing a fet next cycle or do you have to wait?

Not much news from me, apart from feeling quite rubbish and not sure if its the levothyroxine? I'm only meant to be on 25mg a day but have to admit I'd decided ifelt no different and am so desperate to start next cycle I increased it every other day to 37.5mg and now I keep getting muscle twitches in odd places (under my nose, my arm and my toes??!) and occasional chest pain so perhaps I've overdone it and now I'm Panicking but I just want to start and my tsh blood test is next week. I can't see the level having gone down enough it was 4.2 .

I'm also wondering what to do about drugs as my clinic is quite a distance away so I was planning to buy a gonal f pen next week when I have blood test but then what if I can't start the next cycle? Will it 'go off' or do they have a long life if stored in the fridge? I get my results the day after but just don't want the extra trip up there so not sure what to do.

Shellster please let us know how you get on with the clinic. Sending you some express class PMA from across the world. Try not to let it get to you.

Purple I will have to google the Eddie Izzard sketch, haven't seen it. I'm back from Azerbaijan (insert funny accent here) now, it was just a quick trip. Mr Blue's 40th birthday tomorrow then I'm off to Moscow at the weekend. I need to find a birthday cake in the next 12 hours! Arrghhh etc etc.

My doctor has ordered the FET drugs and I'll start downregging on day 21 of this cycle, which is Sun 5th April for me. He said no to the NK cell testing which isn't a surprise. I think I might ask my GP if he'll sign the consent form...I'm trying to avoid spending £300 for a 'consultation' with another doctor. Isn't IVF nuts? Basically handing out cash everywhere you go. My DH thinks the NK stuff is a complete waste of time, as does Prof Robert Winston, my favourite IVF guru. I just don't know. Maybe I need to give it some more thought.

Thanks for the link about progesterone Purple, that's interesting. So is Utrogestan like Endometrium? If so it seems like that would be equivalent to taking 800mg Cyclogest so you've got nothing to worry about. Your clinic seems very good so I'm sure they know what they are doing. RALG!

Waiting please be careful about self-medicating with the levothyroxine. You've given yourself a much bigger dose than the original amount, and from what I understand about thyroid issues (which isn't much), it's a very delicate balance. Maybe you should take it easy and wait for your appointment.

Waiting - Gonal F will be fine if you need to hang onto it for a month or so - you just need to keep it in the fridge. I'm pretty sure that was the one that you keep in the fridge until you stay using it and then leave it out between doses.

Thanks Blue that's made me feel better. You're right - a bit more RALG required! I certainly feel much better on the utrogestan - it doesn't give me the crippling muscle stiffness I got on cyclogest do I'm all in favour.

Hope you manage to source a cake (but I think you're only a true MNer if you bake it yourself )

I've put it back to just the 25 mg a day as scared myself a bit! Its just so frustrating as I didn't except to have an Issue like this holding things up and I'm so impatient its unbelievable,I just want the blood test next week to be the right level but equally I don't want to make myself ill so I think I will stick to what the dr advised.

Had scan today. She counted 9 follicles total. Still only 3 mature but I felt a bit less of a patheticly non fertile woman with 9 in total instead of 5. She also saw a cyst which was not mentioned at previous 2 scans. So I had geared myself up for 3 eggs, quality over quantity, PMA etc etc, then nurse calls & says Dr thinks I can do better another cycle & suggests cancelling. What a mind screw. I said I would go ahead anyway.

I then researched about cyst cycles and studies show it decreases follicle response to meds (as has happened), decreases fertilisation rates & embryo quality. Gulp. Perhaps I should cancel. But if I wait 3 months to try again I will be older and have poorer embryos anyway? I then stumbled across study about DHEA showing it increases number of follicles, improved number of fertilised embryos and their quality. I stopped DHEA in Nov 2014. No wonder my day 2 follicle count has gone from 19 to 9. And if it's reduced my quantity as per the study, then I logic dictates it has reduced my quality as per the study as well! Gulp again.

So in summary, I have a cyst which decreases fertilisation rates and embryo quality, and have stopped DHEA, further reducing my fertilisation rate and embryo quality. And I only have 3 to begin with so I need them all to fertilise! Don't know if it's just desperation but for some reason I am pushing on anyway. I just took my trigger-at least the Dr agreed with me to take that tonight. Someone knock me unconscious until this is all over with!

oh Shellster why can't this be simple? Glad they listened and keeping everything crossed for you - grow follies, grow fast and prosper!xxx

I think you are doing the right thing shellster, and I will keep my fingers crossed for you too x

Hi. I had my hycosy on Monday and it showed my tubes are fine with no blockages.
The dr says he can not see any reason we are not getting pregnant!! I don't know how I feel about the result really. Don't know what's worse having something wrong that prevents u getting pregnant or having no reason your not getting pregnant.
We are hoping now the tubes have been flushed out we might get pregnant this time !

unexplained infertility is such an annoying diagnosis, isn't it Wish - I remember desperately going they'd find something - so long as it was something they could fix. There is a halo effect though aye the hycosy so here's hoping that it solves things for you xxx

Best of luck Shellster. Will keep my fingers crossed for the Triumphant Three (and any others that catch up).

Hello Wish hope you are lucky and get a bump in fertility after your hycosy.

Period arrived yesterday so I've started my Gonal F today instead of yesterday. Relief to get on with it all really.

Hope your cough has gone Purple!

Waiting the doses you are on are very small - don't panic. They should make you feel better - more energy, clearer head if anything, although getting used to the meds can make you feel a bit "wired" and heart palpitations to begin with. Even if your TSH is still a bit raised - your body feels the benefits as soon as you are taking the meds. The TSH lags behind as it is your bodies feedback mechanism telling your body how much hormone to produce, it's just a guide to how much medication you need. Have a read of the link I posted a few pages back - it shows the immediate effect of taking thyroid meds on women with TSH >2.5 undergoing IVF. It shows no difference in the groups and the women only start taking their levothyroxine at the beginning of their IVF cycle. I hope that gives some reassurance.

Today, I thought to ask my clinic what my estrogen levels were yesterday before I took the trigger shot last night. Last time I had an average of 600 per follicle on the day of trigger. This time my level was 1210. Mature follicles produce at least 500 each, so this is an indicator that my two smaller follicles at 14 and 15mm were perhaps not mature. So with that information along with what I wrote in my last post about having a cyst which studies show decreases embryo quality and having stopped DHEA which I now regret for the reason I wrote in my last post, I have decided to cancel this cycle. If money were no issue, I would go ahead. But with this being my last cycle, and the Dr today saying he recommends cancelling and that my embryo quality won't decline between now and two months when I try again, I am back on the waiting wagon! I just ordered some DHEA online and will start it ASAP.

How are you going purple. You're still seem to write in a very cool calm and collected fashion... no long rants like me... so I take that as a good sign that you are feeling positive.

wish, I remember feeling a sense of relief when I was told I had one blocked tube. There was an answer and it wasn't something wrong with my mind for not being able to forget as everyone suggested. So I understand the frustration in not getting any closer to an official diagnosis even though clear tubes is obviously a good thing. I did remember reading a study (me - study obsessed) showing significant increase in preg rates 3 months after the procedure. Didn't happen for me as it turns out hubby has 100% abnormal sperm as well, but hopefully it has done something to help you.

waiting, I think you're doing the right thing sticking at the right dose. I know nothing about TSH so I don't want to comment too much - at least not long til your blood test now.

Woohoo Second - finally starting. It's one hec of a roller coaster. Now that I am waiting again, I am here to support you so rant away as you need! When's your first scan?

Oh Shellster - I completely understand your decision, which is thoroughly thought-through and totally rational, but I'm still sad you're not going to be my 1 1/2 WW buddy .

Yes, I feel remarkably calm, actually (full of cold and cough though ). I think from the moment we decided to use DE, the pressure was off and it felt like the best shot we had. The hormones are kinder, too and that makes a big difference to how I feel. We've got good odds - 65% in this cycle and 85% cumulative success rate with a FET afterwards....and that's if we just put 2 back next time. We'll see how calm I am in a week's time though!!! I was quite calm and optimistic at this point in my first couple of cycles, too!!!

I was fretting a bit about my meds, because the CZ package only lasts up to pregnancy test and then you're on your own - if you have a BFP of course. The CZ drugs are different from the ones I had for my FET, and they had given me a UK equivalent for the oestrodial (which is progynova, which I had for my FET cycle), but not an equivalent for the progesterone (utrogestan). I've found it available online though, so even if I can't get it from my GP, if he'll write me a prescription I should be fine.

Does anyone have experience of organising a blood test for pregnancy? I've never had one and I don't think the GP surgery does them anymore. Even if they do, I would expect the results to take several days and we're off on holiday on test day. CZ clinic has asked for a blood test, so I need to work out how to do that...

Woohoo, Sunrise - glad you've kicked it all off.

Hope you found a good cake, Blue.

Oh blimmin heck Shellster, I'm so sorry. I really think that is the best decesion, and you have based it on all the evidence you have.

Sorry Purple no ideas with the blood test, could a local EPU unit do it or your local hospital?

Shellster sorry to hear that. It sounds like you are making a very sensible decision though, and your doctor is right - I don't think 2 months is going to make any difference. You must be disappointed but I'm sure you'd rather give it your very best shot. Are you on 600mg CoQ10 a day? If not, perhaps you could give it a go? I think it helped me.

Purple I think a private GP should be able to do a blood test pretty easily. I also found this website for you www.medichecks.com/find-a-test/test/Pregnancy-Test-(blood)_QHCG/ . As I'm not really doing much from an IVF point of view at the moment I will be your infertility PA, let me know if you need anything else

Sunrise - great to hear AF turned up, woo hoo!

I managed to get DH's 3 year old face printed on a cake in Asda - I decided to go down the fun route rather than the gourmet route. We're having a nice dinner tonight then a party on Saturday, I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks I've just had a re read of that article secondsunrise. Just out if interest did your tsh level go down enough? What dose were you on of levothyroxine?
I started mine about three weeks ago, bloods next week to check and AF not due till around 12 April (never sure though due to pcos)

Had a bit of a problem today which may throw things completely, dh is in a lot of pain and might have a torsion so I'm panicking about that and very glad we froze his sample when he had his SA. Waiting to see how he gets on and feeling anxious.

Oh no - hope Mr Waiting is okay - what a relief you froze a sample, but such a horrible thing to happen.

Thank you, lovely Blue . I have booked in a test. They have a 24-hour turnaround and it's the morning we're flying out to Tunisia, so I'll POAS that morning and have to telephone for the results from our holiday.

Feeling really unwell....very wheezy, shivery/sweaty, congested and headachey with no appetite at all. Trying to convince myself to eat because it's important right now, but just feel sick at the thought . Think I'll go and buy some fresh fruit and make a juice....all a bit worrying, though I've given myself a stern talking to and decided it's unlikely to have an impact on the outcome...

Been at gp/hosp all aft. They think dh either had a torsion that untwisted itself or an infection, he has antibiotics and has to see gp if no better in couple of days. Hopefully anti b will help and that everything is ok we don't need any more problems !